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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Miss Hattie's Minty Mints

Miss Hattie's Minty Mints -

So, it is time for a break from the deep and meaningful! After a week of sick husband and child, trips to the doctor and a night in the hospital for my little man, I figured it was time to make cookies! I have been trying to work my way through Miss Hattie’s Top Secret Cookie recipes – and this has been harder than you would think. I work two jobs, have three kids and try to have some sort of semblance of a life, so my time baking is not as much as I would like it to be.

I actually tried this recipe, Minty Mints, a couple of weeks ago….I threw the results away thinking surely I had done something grievously wrong! After the first step of mixing the cookies – I couldn’t believe that this was the result. It looked like a giant turd. Yes…cookies and turd in the same post, really…once it was mixed and kneaded, it seriously looked like a giant turd! I threw it out thinking I had done something wrong – I had to have done something wrong. It’s not like I am never distracted by a certain four year old (Gabbiano – seagull in Italian, not I am not Italian. It’s another story for another day!) underfoot. Even with my 14 year olds help, I was SURE that I had done something wrong, copied the recipe wrong, mixed too much flour…something.

So tonight I enlisted Bear’s help (14 year old), and we got out the recipe again and made sure we measured and mixed everything JUST like it said – this is what we got:

That’s right ladies and gentlemen – a giant turd! I got out the Despicable Me! Bluray disk, went to the special features and rechecked the recipe and I had copied it down right. (I’ll repost it below so you have it.) No matter what I did I could not, “knead it lightly until a soft dough forms.” I added two tablespoons of warm water to the “dough” and it was (actually what is in the picture above) a little more doughlike.

Here are all the cookies that it makes – (The larger cookies are my Veggie Tales cookie cutter! Gotta LOVE Bob and Larry, and NO, I was not going to go out and buy a Star cutter just to make these!)

Yes, that’s it…that’s all it makes. Now the frosting…OMG…the frosting, YUMMY!!! How on earth can you go wrong with cream cheese, butter, powered sugar and VANILLA?!?! The answer – YOU CAN’T!!! One thing I did do different is I added the crushed peppermint disk candies to the frosting, because I figured that it would make it more “Minty.” The results:

Bottom line, will NOT be making these again – although I will probably make the frosting again to put on store bought cake mix! That frosting is amazing! The cookies though are way too dry and in all honesty you seriously need the frosting to get them palatable.

I do have another Fortune that I am working on, it is a good one! I am looking forward to writing it up, but it is taking time to digest…hehe, get it Chinese food, fortune…(stomach flu for the past week!).

Until we meet again,

Live, Laugh, Love~

Vanilla Mama

Oops - Almost forgot:

Minty Mints

Cookies:

½ c butter chilled and diced

1 ¼ c all purpose flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

¼ c powdered sugar

Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 ½ c powered sugar

8 peppermint disk candies crushed

Blue and pink sprinkles

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Cut in the butter using an electric mixer, a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Knead lightly until a soft dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Frosting:

In a medium sized mixing bowl beat cream cheese on medium speed until creamed. Then add butter and mix together on high speed, pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides until well incorporated.

Add vanilla and mix again on medium speed until well incorporated. Add powered sugar one cup at a time first at low speed and then on high once the powder is absorbed until desired sweetness and consistency is achieved. Refrigerate with cookie dough.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove frosting from fridge and set aside. Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to ½ inch thickness.

Remove top layer of parchment paper. Using a star shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many as possible, slide a thin flat spatula under each star, peel away scraps and slip star over onto parchment lined cookie sheet, placing them two inches apart. Gather scraps and repeat.

Bake for 12-15 minutes just until edges begin to darken. Remove from oven and slide parchment paper and cookies onto counter top and let cool completely. Frost cookies and sprinkle with crushed peppermint and colors sprinkles. Enjoy.

4 comments:

I am always having trouble with frosting. I tried making with water based margerine and it came out runny. I also learned that I am not to use home ground sugar for frosting. I could never match it up with confectionary sugar. So sugar is sugar I don't think that it will make that much of a difference when it comes to our health. I will just let know the people with sugar problem that I used confectionary sugar so watch out:)

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About Me

Why Vanilla Mama? Am I bland and boring? I would like to think that I am not. I love the scent of Vanilla. Candles, bath soap, body spray and most recently deodorant from Avon that is Vanilla scented. If I have a choice of something to smell - it will be Vanilla. Is it a little odd to align oneself with a particular scent so strongly? Perhaps...but, if you are ever in doubt of something that I might like, then doubt no longer! If nothing else, from now on when you smell Vanilla - you may remember me.
Live, Laugh, Love ~ Vanilla Mama